Have you fully committed your leadership to principles God established in the Bible? (100-3)

Effective leadership flows from commitment to the right things. As followers of Christ, the single most important commitment of our lives is to God. Any true (and eternal) success we experience as leaders will flow from that commitment. Read 1 Kings 15:9-24.

During the reigns of Kings David and Solomon the nation of Israel was united. The 12 tribes that descended from one of Israel’s great leaders, Jacob, united as one people very similar to the United States. Each tribe retained governing leaders for their “state” but united under one central leader. After the death of Solomon the nation split into two groups, the 10 northern tribes united in a nation called Israel and the 2 southern tribes in a nation called Judah. Each nation had separate kings starting with Solomon’s son Rehoboam over Judah and Jeroboam over Israel.

The Biblical history of the 12 tribes, formerly known only as Israel, from this point is tracked by the relationship of these two nations (Judah and Israel) to God and to each other. We see some God-fearing kings in each nation and some idol-worshiping kings in each nation. Generally the way this is described in the Bible is centered on the actions of the king i.e. either “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” or “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The next weeks of leadership studies will look at each type of leader and the pluses and minuses of each leader.

The third king of Judah was Asa. He served as king of Judah for 41 years from the capitol city of Jerusalem. “Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father (actually great, great grandfather) David had done” (v. 11).

Judah had become an idol-worshiping nation under the leadership of Solomon (in his later years), Rehoboam and Abijah. They had built temples to false gods; they had established so many alternate sites of worship other than the temple of God in Jerusalem that it is noted in 1 Kings 14:23 that there were “…sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.” Asa determined his leadership would bring religious reforms that honored the one true God to the people of Judah. “He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his fathers had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive Asherah pole” (15:12-13).

Even though he was not perfect in his reforms and did not remove all the high places where false gods were worshiped, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. Effective Christian leaders, although not perfect in all their actions, devote their heart to following God and obeying the leadership principles established in the Bible. They have an inner belief, a core value, that truth about effective leadership is found only in principles established by God in His word.

Have you fully committed your leadership to principles God established in the Bible? If not, consider doing so now. If you’re not a devoted, active follower of Christ, perhaps you should consider establishing or renewing that commitment.